Unionville residents concerned about speeding traffic

EAST MARLBOROUGH — Traffic safety concerns in the village of Unionville once again dominated the supervisors meeting Monday night.

Supervisor Richard Hannum, a village resident who had been delegated by the other supervisors at a previous meeting to look into the various issues involved in the question, said he had talked to PennDOT officials and found they would not pay for a traffic study in the village, since that stretch of Route 82 belonged to the township.

But the state agency was willing to provide whatever insight and advice it could offer, Hannum said. He added that control over speed limits in the village remained with PennDOT, however, complicating the wish of some area residents to lower the speed limit there from the current limit of 35 mph.

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Several village residents attended the meeting and said they were concerned about the speed and recklessness of drivers passing through. Marybeth Brown said she was afraid every time her children had to cross Route 82. “If they step in that road, they’re taking their life in their own hands,” she said.

Unionville resident Jack Greenwood said one problem is that drivers did not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, and recommended using elevated walkways to help people cross the road safely.

Greenwood also pointed out that area speed limits were inconsistent. He noted that Wollaston Road’s limit was 25 mph, while Route 162, on the other side of Route 82, was 45 mph.

Township Manager Jane Laslo said part of the solution was for considerate drivers who followed traffic rules regarding crosswalks and other restrictions to get people in the habit of stopping where they needed to.

Laslo said the township had considered traffic-calming measures in the past. There were liability issues with speed bumps, she said, and traffic islands were prohibitively expensive. But the bikeway project for Route 82 did include a traffic island intended to slow drivers, she added.

Board Chairman Cuyler Walker said the township’s options were constrained by PennDOT’s policy of basing speed limits on the rate of speed most drivers traveled. Local officials might not agree with the policy, he said, but they were compelled to follow it.

“The fact is, people drive through this township without a care in the world,” Walker said. “It’s nice to think that if we tweak the rules, that’s going to solve the problem.” But even lowering the speed limit would not control individual drivers who traveled at unsafe speeds, he said.

Walker said the important thing was to explore what options the board did have, and said he thought a traffic study for the general area was worth pursuing. He said Hannum could contact PennDOT and see if the agency was interested in doing a study of traffic in the area of Routes 82, 842 and 162.

In addition, Walker said, the board could appoint Hannum to serve on the township safety committee headed by Supervisor Eddie Caudill and have the committee consider what should be included in a traffic study the township might pursue to increase safety in Unionville.

In other business, the board voted to buy a generator to keep emergency services functioning in the event of a power outage caused by a major storm or other disaster. Caudill suggested putting off the $28,000 purchase until next year, but Supervisor Robert Weer and others said the money was available in the budget, and with the tropical-storm season under way it made sense to have the generator in place as soon as possible.